'Is anybody there?': Training to teach with virtual students

This time last year, I was eagerly awaiting September which would mark the beginning of my teacher training. Having worked in a school for a number of years as a Teaching Assistant, I had a clear idea of what my teacher training year would entail: developing engaging lesson plans; implementing behavioural management strategies; differentiating activities; familiarising myself with the school curriculum; and forming positive relationships with my students. 

My vision for January 2021 was full of these ideas. When I pictured where I would be, I imagined myself in a lively classroom, making use of the dialogic teaching strategies which were at the centre of the educational ideology I had developed during the Education Studies modules of my undergraduate degree. 

The reality of January 2021 as a trainee teacher is much different. Of course, beginning teacher training during a global pandemic was always going to pose challenges and unforeseen changes to education. In the first term of teaching, we had to adjust not only to our placement settings, classes, and the expectations of teaching, but also those "Covid rules" which affected how we worked. As well as lesson plans, differentiation, our personal targets and the curriculum - amongst other things - we also had to factor in the time it would take to sanitise all the desks, the 2 metre rule, how to make lessons engaging when group work isn’t allowed, and reminding students to please put their masks on before they leave the room and ensure that it covers their nose! Through my role as a TA - in which I worked with the key worker and vulnerable students during the first lockdown - I had some experience of what schooling would look like this year. However, all of these new considerations for teaching took some adjusting to. 

January 2021 has brought even more changes which none of us trainees could be prepared for. I am now working with virtual students; students who I met and taught during the Autumn term, but who now exist as abstract and faceless figures. 
Teaching in this way is a bizarre experience. GDPR and safeguarding rules mean that online lessons taught at my placement school are conducted through Microsoft Teams Live Events: I can neither see nor hear my students. All communication with them comes through the 'Q&A' box in which they type. My students are now beings who lack corporeal form. For me, they exist only through this Q&A box, as and when they respond. They seem very much like The Listeners in Walter de la Mare's eponymous poem: I am The Traveller asking 'is anybody there?'

As a teacher, you do not realise how much you respond to your students during a lesson. Virtual teaching has made me realise just how much I depend on the facial expressions and body language of my students. I can no longer look at where Chris’ eyes are focused to check that he is engaged. I can't see Jessica frowning slightly to indicate that she's a bit confused but doesn't want to admit it. I can't hear Aidan quietly starting to hum under his breath because the work isn't quite challenging enough and he's impatient to get started. Evidently, these are things that I had been subconsciously noticing whilst live teaching, but hadn't really thought about until they were no longer there to observe. I'm sure this also works in reverse, too; I found that, when teaching a class, my best practice came when I was an active physical presence. If I stood at the front of the room, my students were noticeably more engaged than if I was sat at my desk, or stood elsewhere in the room. Walking around the room during tasks seemed to make my students feel more comfortable with asking for help and even the inexplicable hand gestures that I make when speaking appear to help some students to focus on what I am teaching them.

What I have found, however, is that the students like the security of being able to ask a question anonymously. Checking the 'post as anonymous' box when asking a question or giving an answer provides the students with a safety barrier of deniability in which they do not have to fear embarrassment, teasing, or hurt pride. My students have begun asking questions which it seems they have been too embarrassed to ask before and which we, as teachers, have therefore just incorrectly presumed that they know. The anonymity of the Q&A forum works in their favour for this as they are finally able to get the understanding they need without having to identify themselves as being "the only student who didn't know". I am also hearing more from the quieter students - those students who never raise their hand and only give an answer if you ask them a question directly. The ones who never volunteer to share their work because their louder, more confident peers are always happy to share theirs. The inability to see or hear their peers and their contributions makes them more willing to share their own, meaning I often have a diverse list of answers in the Q&A box which I can then share with the class.

Planning lessons, too, poses new challenges. Lev Vygotsky points to collaborative learning as a key factor in improving progression in young people and Robin Alexander suggests that teaching should be student-led and consist of little 'teacher-talk'. Within the live classroom, this would transpire in the form of group or peer work, class discussions and sharing of work. These are elements of teaching which I was very keen to implement within my practice as they exemplify my own views of education.
Facilitating these things in the virtual classroom requires a lot more thought as students can only share their answers through the Q&A box which takes a lot of time: asking them to type whole paragraphs is impractical and time consuming. However, this presents a good opportunity to make students more critical of their own work. The nature of online learning means that plenaries generally consist of self assessment. Instead of peer marking and class analysis of exemplar work, students are asked to assess their own work with regards to questions and learning outcomes. Of course, this is often common practice in live lessons too, but in the virtual environment it becomes more meaningful as the students know that their marking is the one that counts; there is no-one else who will be able to mark it after them. The students must then be critical and selective, choosing the best sentence or idea they have written to offer up as an example of what they have achieved during the lesson. Here, they must take control of their own progress and be more analytical of their work: something which teachers try and encourage, particularly at GCSE level, to augment their progress and engage them with the marking criteria. Not having their teacher or peers present ensures therefore increases their self-efficacy and understanding of their own learning (or metacognition).

Teaching students you cannot see or hear is a daunting prospect, but, I'll admit, I was quite excited by the difference in experience it would offer. Despite the challenges of virtual teaching, I am confident that both myself and my students are developing unanticipated skills which will allow us to progress in new and better ways. 

January 2021 as a trainee teacher certainly is not what I expected it to be. Doing Education Studies helped me to understand theoretical knowledge and ideologies surrounding good classroom practice. Live teaching has taught me how to build positive relationships with students, maintain good behaviour, and develop classroom strategies that work for me. Virtual teaching is pushing me to understand my students in different ways, make my lesson content more engaging, and consider new approaches, including digital platforms which are inaccessible in the live classroom. 

At times, I do relate to The Traveller when de la Mare writes: 

"Never the least stir made the listeners,   
   Though every word he spake
   Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house   
 From the one man left awake".

However, I remind myself that, in the students' eyes, I am not talking to a faceless, discarnate being; I am talking to each individual separately, asking for their answer, answering their question, and celebrating their successes. There is somebody there, and they are ready to learn. 

*All names have been changed.

Sinéad Tricarico-Humber, English trainee